I’m leaving on a jet plane.. October 6, 2009

Just a little update to say I GOT MY VISA! the wait is over my friends.

I’m hoppin on the next plane outta here and startin phase 2: life in Glasgow. Stay tuned!

Here It Comes a Better Version of Me October 2, 2009

For about as long as I can remember, I knew that my small conservative home town was not the place for me and in the years following high school, I moved as far away as my resources would allow. First to the opposite side of Pennsylvania, then to Wisconsin and most recently Seattle.    Sidenote: Can ya tell I’m not a warm weather person?

Anyway, I absolutely do not regret leaving home but leaving my family is another thing. I always felt deeply guilty and worried about missing time with them that I’d never get back, especially my sister who is 18 years my junior and seems to be growing, maturing and doing new and infinitely cute things every time I see her.  When she was first born, I dreamed of teaching her all about great indie music and imparting my love of books and helping her learn to challenge the norm. Basically being the coolest and best big sister evar.

One day it dawned on me how ridiculous this guilt was. One of the people that inspired me and I respected most was my black sheep uncle who had bolted out of this place at the same time in his life as I had. I only saw him maybe once a year at most, and yet! thats all it took for him to rock my world and make me reconsider everything I thought I knew.

So it turns out that that the best big sister, daughter, friend and *gasp* wife! I can be is the same me that isn’t going to turn down all these chances to see the world because of a silly little thing like guilt. Go figure.

Show and Tell! October 1, 2009

99 days

I know the blog has been a bit text-heavy as of late which I fully plan to remedy when I get to the UK and actually start experiencing new things besides previously unheard of stress levels. But for now, I’ll tide you over, dear readers, with some pictures of things I’ve been raving about for ages. My wedding dress and the invites!

here she be!

Excuse the blurry faces of my sister and I, this girl likes her internet anonymity (don’t ask me why I felt the need to blur the back of my cousin’s head). Also, I’ve now got a big poofy white crinoline peticoat to go under it, to give it a big more drama and shape. Better non-cellphone pictures of that to come!

The invitations…

invites, rsvp card and envelopes

Just try to guess our names, I dare ya! (Both of them are fairly unusual so really, good luck)

I love the silver strands in the paper and the fact that its a bit pulpy and unrefined. The photo doesnt do the paper justice for sure.

How awesome is it that the rsvp looks like a luggage tag? Thats right. Pretty effin awesome.

It Works if You Work it, You’re Worth it!

100 days!

I knew that when we started planning the wedding, that it’d be fun, and stressfull  and complicated and that the boy and i would learn a lot about eachother and whats important to the two of us.

what i didnt anticipate, was how much i’d learn about myself in the process. part of it came from the barage of ‘why?’s i got from the boy when i rattled off all the stuff i wanted in/for the wedding. when i couldnt really answer his questions with any sort of logic, i realized i was getting sucked under the wedding industrial complex bus and if i didnt back away soon, i’d have bridezilla tiremarks all over my face. 

Lesson of The Day September 16, 2009

117 days

Apparently nonrefundable doesn’t mean all is lost if you cancel a plane ticket as I assumed. And as we all know, assuming makes an ass out of..well mostly me.

I discovered this during a series of lengthy calls to Expedia.com and US Airways, learning that if you cancel a ticket before the departure time they’ll give you the value of the ticket in credit for a new one as long as you use it toward the same airline and make your puchase within a year of the day the ticket was bought.

Score!

Maybe I should have thought to ask about that before but oh well. Very handy information for my situation (and maybe someone else’s as well) none the less!

The only catch is that (US Airways at least) charges a fee of $250 to spend your own credit..kinda ridiculous eh?

This Is What I Know September 15, 2009

I was asked on a forum about what my fiance visa process was like, and thought ‘oh! thats why I started my blog! to explain the process! i’ll just point her to a post to read..’ and went diggin. But as I was looking, I realized that my posts were more story than information. Whoops. So, this post aims to remedy that! (Hopefully I can remember all the steps, it was a few months ago..)

Murphy’s Law September 12, 2009

120 days

Seeing as there are only 2 business days left with still no word from the consulate about my visa, it’s looking like I will miss yet another departure date. And I soooo thought it was going to come this time…

Now the boy is moving into our apartment without me, buying housewares without me, and spending the first night in our new place alone.

I also may end up staying on this side of the pond until October now as well (until the maximum amount of time a visa can take to process–according to the Brit consulate, is up). This would leave me not only pissed off and without my boy for far too long, but also only give me 2 months to finish planning and orchestrating the wedding since I’ve done all I can do from afar….grrrrr

Plus my employer hired my replacement since I thought I was leaving and he is just about all trained so, I’m not sure what will happen there if I end up staying longer again..

That is all. Just needed to rant and vent some frustration with ALL THE RED FUCKING TAPE keeping me stuck here, on the wrong continent.

The boy says wel’l laugh about this when it’s over but I dunno, I may take this bitterness to the grave. Ya hear me British Consulate! Watch yer back aight!

*takes a few deep breaths and goes back to feverishly checking her email*

only for those with True Grit August 26, 2009

137 days

Well folks, it’s been a stressful couple of weeks but despite some costly (both financial and emotional) setbacks, I think we’re just about back on track.

The scoop: my visa did not come in time for our September 2nd departure date (and as of now, has still yet to arrive) so the boy is now on the other side of the pond without me which sucks big time. I missed out on spending time with his family, going to London and finally meeting his best man.

But alas, the new plan is for me to fly out on September 16th, provided the British Consulate sees fit to give me my passport back by then with the necessary paperwork. In short, we’re hoping, praying, meditating, crossing our fingers toes and eyes that it comes this week so we don’t have to drop another $400 on changing my flight.

I NEED TO GET OUT OF THIS SMALL CONSERVATIVE TOWN, out of my parents house, out of a temporary living situation and start my new life with the boy already!! This living in limbo is driving me absolutely bonkers if you haven’t noticed.

The things keeping me from going totally whacko taco off the deep end? Books mostly. Thank god for the trip to Barnes and Nobles we made a few days before the boy left. I picked up a buy two get one free Hunter S. Thompson deal and the OffBeat Bride book. (Side note, has anyone else had a ‘dirty chai’ aka chai tea with a shot of espresso? i had my first at B&N–my oh my was it delicious!)

Speaking of things I’ve newly become a fan of, I made my first purchases at Sephora yesterday. My maid of honor and i spent quit a bit of time in there, testing things out and looking for the perfect shades of this or that and it was totally worth it. I tested out my new goodies as soon as I came home and I do believe i’ve got my wedding look down! Hooray, another thing checked off the list. So psyched about having found a red lipstick i can wear that matches the tones of my face. Now how to keep it off the boys face when we say I do..hmmm…

Change is not a process for the impatient August 2, 2009

161 days

So what was the actual visa process like once I’d figured out which visa I’d be applying for and who’d help me with it you ask?

Well, before even taking my ‘case’, I talked to an American from Global Visas in their Minnesota who asked me a bunch of questions about my situation and what I intended to do. They told me they do not take cases they don’t think they can win and want to make sure I have a solid chance which, once approved, was reassuring to know.

Next, another phone consultation was scheduled, this time with my British advisor. She was nice enough, answered my questions about time frames (I officially started the visa process in May, and am hoping to be out of the country by the beginning of September) and gave me a checklist of documents I needed to procure to complete my application.

Most of it was pretty basic stuff that I had expected ie birth certificate, proof of relationship, housing, etc. In fact,  I was extremely lucky to have found out about needing to have proof of the relationship very early because I had spent at least a year keeping every single useful bit of memorabilia from our travels and time together in a shoebox. The thing that threw me off was the proof of intent to marry. Our wedding was just under a year away at this point and we’d planned on getting the visa stuff out of the way before doing too much wedding organization.  However, this proof of intent to marry stuff meant we had to get invitations printed, the wedding location booked and have an officiant for the ceremony lined up asap.  All while I was in the US and the boy was trying to do finals and end of term projects. Eeek.

We were both  pretty stressed out about having to get pretty much the three most important aspects of a wedding sorted on such a deadline but I have to admit, I was more than a little glad to have a valid excuse to make the boy focus on wedding planning.

I’m a little evil, I know.

Update: visa status July 11, 2009

Earlier I was whining about not being able to check the status of my application but today I recieved an email with an update,whoorah!

Although the info in said email is a bit confusing… first it says I’m likely to get a decision and response on my application within 24hrs. AWESOME! or it may be 5-10 days. still pretty sweet. or it could take up to 12 weeks with the offices average process time at 40-45 days….not as great.

crossin my fingers for option A..